Satellite Tag Return

From Virginia to the Azores: four years and 3,000 miles apart! In 2021, our team deployed one of the first pop-up satellite tags on a black sea bass (Centropristis striata) off Virginia Beach, testing new ways to study movement and habitat use. This February, that same tag was found drifting off the Azores by marine scientist @fontes_ecodive and returned through @dr_nathan_robinson. While the fish moved on long ago, the tag’s unexpected trans-Atlantic voyage became a story of connection - how research, people, and the ocean itself link us across vast distances. Thank you to Dr. Jorge Fontes, Okeanos Institute, and Dr. Nathan Robinson for making this connection possible! Map animation: Google Earth